Diwali

Ujjal Mandal, India

A lamp can dispel
millions of darknesses
billions of ignorances
and trillions of sinners
like the burning sun
does. 

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Stars fall from the sky 

And congregate on the ground to erect an ivory palace,

As bright as day, as searing as the desires 

Entombed deep under the earth's surface.

It doesn't take nightfall 

To lure them inside-

The eager, the crafty, the venal, the mortal.

Every nugget of their flesh blazes in the lambent lights.

Inscrutable power it gives them 

As they undr...

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City lights,

Fireflies,

Half-hearted smiles 

And ugly cries.

Bustling roads,

Narrow and broad;

Abundant with shops and bars,

And people- their bodies, minds and souls scarred.

Edifices tall and sturdy.

Trapped in it are people content and happy;

And those walking on thorns, barbed and merciless;

And those breathing but lifeless.

The city is a plac...

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She drags tired heels

across a tainted floor,

poise slightly bowed

and her back is sore.

She holds on her face

a cold marble stare,

a hard life engraved

upon cheeks once so fair.

Her faulting movements,

once graceful; divine,

her aching limbs now

with guile, defy

her final performance

on this dark empty stage,

memories fleeting

of a much better age...

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`

i will not be scorched
by the flame of another
i shall keep my fire
fueled only by the pure
kindling found deep
within the terrain
of my wooded home


the sun shall bring
enough light by day
and a torch well-lit
shall provide steady
footsteps to tread
the dark by night

[as I search for what
I cannot find or name]

no light save by the moon
...

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